Grupo Resilient International Inc (GRUI)

[PUNTANG]

More on Business week article

South Korea has for years been on the leading edge of electronic gizmos, especially anything cell phone related. South Korea leads this segment much like California leads fashion. So, the world will mirror the growth in Korea eventually, hopefully in the next couple of years. Here's the highlights from the article (that I just posted) on the forecasted growth in Korea:

(in South Korea) 20,000 parents pay $10 per month for alerts if their children stray from the route between school and home. The Korea Association of Information & Telecommunication reckons such services are growing by 74% annually, with revenues expected to triple in 2007, to $1.54 billion, from $500 million last year.

In Korea, the future may have arrived early. Elsewhere it might take a while before consumers warm up to the idea of cellphone tracking. In the U.S., a company called Teen Arrive Alive offers parents a $20-a-month tracking service for their teens. But to date the company has sold the service to only one cell-phone carrier, Nextel.

In other countries, consumers are proving more open to cellular tracking. In Britain, The Carphone Warehouse offers mapAmobile, a $52-a-year service that lets parents track their cell-toting kids. And in Japan, subscribers can sign up for text messages advertising bargains at department stores as they pass by.

Korea, though, is clearly at the forefront -- and not just for consumers. Hwang Yoon, who runs a call center for 1,500 taxi drivers, uses a service that broadcasts text messages to cabdrivers within a one-, two-, or three-kilometer radius of a fare's location. The first driver who responds -- by pushing a button on the phone -- gets the job. "This technology is an excellent and cheap fit for us," says Hwang. Sales of business-related tracking services in Korea are expected to jump more than fivefold this year, to $248 million, from $43 million last year.